Whilst walking around the jebals in Dhahran I came across a few small flowering plants, about 60 cm tall, growing in stable sand that turned out to be Cakile Cakile arabica. This plant has purple flowers that are 12-20mm wide and give off a sweet fragrance. They tend to grow in colonies, which in rainy years are so extensive that they create a sea of pinky-purple in the desert. Insects, especially butterflies and moths, find it a good food source. This species occurs only in Arabia, north to Syria and Iraq, and in the Sinai Peninsula.
